According to reports, 49-year-old Michael Slater had a heated argument with his friends onboard a Qantas plane which was bound to Wagga from Sydney on Sunday (May 19). After the situation got out of control on the 74-seater plane, he locked himself in the aircraft’s toilet, a claim which was later denied by his management

New Delhi: Former Australian batsman Michael Slater was removed from a flight after a heated argument with two of his women friends, according to local media reports on Tuesday (May 21).

Slater, who was recently in India to commentate on the Indian Premier League (IPL 2019), has now apologised for his “disruptive” behaviour which delayed the flight for about 30 minutes.

According to reports, 49-year-old Slater had a heated argument with his friends onboard a Qantas plane which was bound to Wagga from Sydney on Sunday (May 19). After the situation got out of control on the 74-seater plane, he locked himself in the aircraft’s toilet, a claim which was later denied by his management.

In a statement, Slater said, “I did have an argument with two friends while boarding a flight to Wagga and I apologise for the inconvenience this caused other passengers on the flight”.

Macquarie Radio digital content producer Nick Fergus told Ray Hadley on 2GB, “He’s been involved in an extremely heated argument — this has been described as not a run of the mill argument — it was yelling, it was swearing and it was only getting worse as they moved to their seats.”

Fergus added, “What we’re told by witnesses is Michael removed himself from the situation and went to the bathrooms of the plane.

“As they were doing the safety briefings he remained in the bathroom. Crews repeatedly asked him to come out and he refused. At that point the plane couldn’t take off and it was being delayed further and further and crew were forced to call airport security who boarded the plane.”